Redd terrific, but season over

Roadell Hickman/The Plain DealerRobert Redd's 11 receptions for 152 yards and two touchdowns were buried in the rubble of a 70-35 loss to the Soul in the National Conference championship game.

Robert Redd did his job Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.

Problem for the Gladiators is, Redd only counts for one. His 11 receptions for 152 yards and two touchdowns were buried in the rubble of a 70-35 loss to the Soul in the National Conference championship game.

"I thought I played an all-right game, but it wasn't enough for us to pull out the 'W,' " he said. "All that really matters is, did we win? The individual stuff doesn't matter when you don't win."

Redd is being humble: He was better than all right. Because so few of his teammates delivered to expectations, Redd's performance qualifies as terrific. The Bowling Green product stood out like a giant buoy in choppy seas.

Redd finished off a fantastic postseason. In three games, he caught 30 passes for 399 yards and nine touchdowns. It followed a regular season in which he led the team with 129 receptions for 1,523 yards and caught 16 TD passes.

At some point in the off-season, Redd might pause and appreciate the body of work in his third AFL season. It probably will not happen any time soon, though. The Philadelphia loss, which denied a shot at ArenaBowl XXII, will sting for a while.

"I accomplished a lot of my individual goals, but the season would have been a lot better if a championship came with it," Redd said. "You play to win championships."

It was bad enough for Redd and his teammates that they lost with everything on the line. How they went down made it that much worse. The Gladiators, coming off a 73-70 victory at Georgia in the divisional round, were dominated.

"They outplayed us in every phase -- offense, defense and special teams," Redd said. "They beat us. No excuses."

Redd said it did not matter that the Gladiators played with two days' fewer rest than the Soul. They beat Georgia on Monday night.

"We weren't tired," he said.

The bigger stumbling block arose in warm-ups. Jack linebacker Sakeen Wright suffered a knee injury and was done for the afternoon. "We felt his absence," Redd said. "He's been such a good player for us."

Redd insisted his club was mentally and physically ready to play, even if its execution indicated otherwise. Players on both sides of the ball seemed jittery, leading to a host of uncharacteristic mistakes.

"We had the mind-set," Redd said. "We believed we could do it. We were pumped. We just didn't make plays like they did."

Philadelphia kicked off and stopped on the Gladiators on their first possession, quarterback Raymond Philyaw losing yardage on fourth-and-inches. The Soul capped its first drive with a TD.

After the Gladiators tied it, 7-7, the Soul ripped off 21 consecutive points. To make the surge possible, Philadelphia intercepted Philyaw in Cleveland territory and stopped the Gladiators on downs.

Philadelphia led, 35-21, at halftime, then scored on its first possession of the third quarter.

"It's tough when a team gets on you early like they did," Redd said. "They jumped on us. They did a better job than we did at the start and forced us to play catch-up, which is never easy, especially at this time of the season."

A comeback proved unrealistic because the offense, Redd being the notable exception, largely remained out of sync. The TD machine that knocked out Georgia had broken down. The offensive force that had beaten Philadelphia once in the regular season and almost won a second meeting showed up in fits and starts.

"The key to everything was their fast start," Redd said. "We needed to get off to a better start than we did. They got the momentum and ran with it."

Redd is convinced the Gladiators will return next season better for the experience.

"The guys coming back know we can play with the best teams in the league," he said. "We had an 'off' day and paid for it. We'll learn from it."

Soul quarterback Matt D'Orazio, who was born in Elyria, threw eight touchdown passes and was not intercepted.

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